Then the Israelites went and did this; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

He summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Get up, leave my people, both you and the Israelites, and go, worship Yahweh as you have asked.

Take even your flocks and your herds as you asked and leave, and also bless me.”

It was a night of vigil in honor of the Lord, because He would bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night is in honor of the Lord, a night vigil for all the Israelites throughout their generations.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner may eat it.

It is to be eaten in one house. You may not take any of the meat outside the house, and you may not break any of its bones.

Then all the Israelites did this; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

“Consecrate every firstborn male to Me, the firstborn from every womb among the Israelites, both man and domestic animal; it is Mine.”

For seven days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there is to be a festival to the Lord.

Unleavened bread is to be eaten for those seven days. Nothing leavened may be found among you, and no yeast may be found among you in all your territory.

On that day explain to your son, ‘This is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’

Let it serve as a sign for you on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead, so that the Lord’s instruction may be in your mouth; for the Lord brought you out of Egypt with a strong hand.

“When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you,

“In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘By the strength of His hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.

When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of man to the firstborn of livestock. That is why I sacrifice to the Lord all the firstborn of the womb that are males, but I redeem all the firstborn of my sons.’

So let it be a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead, for the Lord brought us out of Egypt by the strength of His hand.”

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about the people and said: “What have we done? We have released Israel from serving us.”

The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, his horsemen, and his army—chased after them and caught up with them as they camped by the sea beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up and saw the Egyptians coming after them. Then the Israelites were terrified and cried out to the Lord for help.

They said to Moses: “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?

Isn’t this what we told you in Egypt: Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

As for you, lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.

He caused their chariot wheels to swerve and made them drive with difficulty. “Let’s get away from Israel,” the Egyptians said, “because Yahweh is fighting for them against Egypt!”

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord. They said:

I will sing to the Lord,
for He is highly exalted;
He has thrown the horse
and its rider into the sea.

The Lord is my strength and my song;
He has become my salvation.
This is my God, and I will praise Him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

The Lord is a warrior;
Yahweh is His name.

Lord, Your right hand is glorious in power.
Lord, Your right hand shattered the enemy.

Lord, who is like You among the gods?
Who is like You, glorious in holiness,
revered with praises, performing wonders?

and terror and dread will fall on them.
They will be as still as a stone
because of Your powerful arm
until Your people pass by, Lord,
until the people whom You purchased pass by.

Miriam sang to them:

Sing to the Lord,
for He is highly exalted;
He has thrown the horse
and its rider into the sea.

They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water at Marah because it was bitter—that is why it was named Marah.

He said, “If you will carefully obey the Lord your God, do what is right in His eyes, pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, I will not inflict any illnesses on you that I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am Yahweh who heals you.”

The entire Israelite community departed from Elim and came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt.

The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!”

On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.”

in the morning you will see the Lord’s glory because He has heard your complaints about Him. For who are we that you complain about us?”

Moses continued, “The Lord will give you meat to eat this evening and more than enough bread in the morning, for He has heard the complaints that you are raising against Him. Who are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the Lord.”

As Aaron was speaking to the entire Israelite community, they turned toward the wilderness, and there in a cloud the Lord’s glory appeared.

When the layer of dew evaporated, there were fine flakes on the desert surface, as fine as frost on the ground.

When the Israelites saw it, they asked one another, “What is it?” because they didn’t know what it was.

Moses told them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.

This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Gather as much of it as each person needs to eat. You may take two quarts per individual, according to the number of people each of you has in his tent.’”

When they measured it by quarts, the person who gathered a lot had no surplus, and the person who gathered a little had no shortage. Each gathered as much as he needed to eat.

Moses said to them, “No one is to let any of it remain until morning.”

They gathered it every morning. Each gathered as much as he needed to eat, but when the sun grew hot, it melted.

On the sixth day they gathered twice as much food, four quarts apiece, and all the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses.

He told them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil, and set aside everything left over to be kept until morning.’”

So they set it aside until morning as Moses commanded, and it didn’t smell or have any maggots in it.

“Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you won’t find any in the field.

Understand that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day He will give you two days’ worth of bread. Each of you stay where you are; no one is to leave his place on the seventh day.”

Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Two quarts of it are to be preserved throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”

As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron placed it before the testimony to be preserved.

So the people complained to Moses, “Give us water to drink.”

“Why are you complaining to me?” Moses replied to them. “Why are you testing the Lord?”

But the people thirsted there for water, and grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you ever bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”

He named the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites complained, and because they tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Moses said to Joshua, “Select some men for us and go fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the hilltop with God’s staff in my hand.”

Joshua did as Moses had told him, and fought against Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

The Lord then said to Moses, “Write this down on a scroll as a reminder and recite it to Joshua: I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek under heaven.”

And Moses built an altar and named it, “The Lord Is My Banner.”

He said, “Indeed, my hand is lifted up toward the Lord’s throne. The Lord will be at war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

“Praise the Lord,” Jethro exclaimed, “who rescued you from Pharaoh and the power of the Egyptians and snatched the people from the power of the Egyptians.

Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all gods, because He did wonders when the Egyptians acted arrogantly against Israel.”

When Moses’ father-in-law saw everything he was doing for them he asked, “What is this thing you’re doing for the people? Why are you alone sitting as judge, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?”

“What you’re doing is not good,” Moses’ father-in-law said to him.

“You will certainly wear out both yourself and these people who are with you, because the task is too heavy for you. You can’t do it alone.

But you should select from all the people able men, God-fearing, trustworthy, and hating bribes. Place them over the people as commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

So Moses chose able men from all Israel and made them leaders over the people as commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

Moses went up the mountain to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain: “This is what you must say to the house of Jacob, and explain to the Israelites:

Now if you will listen to Me and carefully keep My covenant, you will be My own possession out of all the peoples, although all the earth is Mine,

As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder.

But Moses responded to the Lord, “The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, since You warned us: Put a boundary around the mountain and consider it holy.”

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates.

Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

“You speak to us, and we will listen,” they said to Moses, “but don’t let God speak to us, or we will die.”

And the people remained standing at a distance as Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

Then the Lord told Moses, “This is what you are to say to the Israelites: You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.

“You must make an earthen altar for Me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats, as well as your cattle. I will come to you and bless you in every place where I cause My name to be remembered.

If you make a stone altar for Me, you must not build it out of cut stones. If you use your chisel on it, you will defile it.

You must not go up to My altar on steps, so that your nakedness is not exposed on it.

“When you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for six years; then in the seventh he is to leave as a free man without paying anything.

If he arrives alone, he is to leave alone; if he arrives with a wife, his wife is to leave with him.

“But if the slave declares: ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I do not want to leave as a free man,’

his master is to bring him to the judges and then bring him to the door or doorpost. His master must pierce his ear with an awl, and he will serve his master for life.

“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she is not to leave as the male slaves do.

If she is displeasing to her master, who chose her for himself, then he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners because he has acted treacherously toward her.

“Whoever kidnaps a person must be put to death, whether he sells him or the person is found in his possession.

“When men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone or his fist, and the injured man does not die but is confined to bed,

However, if the slave can stand up after a day or two, the owner should not be punished because he is his owner’s property.

“When men get in a fight and hit a pregnant woman so that her children are born prematurely but there is no injury, the one who hit her must be fined as the woman’s husband demands from him, and he must pay according to judicial assessment.

If there is an injury, then you must give life for life,

“When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox must be stoned, and its meat may not be eaten, but the ox’s owner is innocent.

If instead a ransom is demanded of him, he can pay a redemption price for his life in the full amount demanded from him.

If it gores a son or a daughter, he is to be dealt with according to this same law.

If, however, it is known that the ox was in the habit of goring, yet its owner has not restrained it, he must compensate fully, ox for ox; the dead animal will become his.

If a thief is caught in the act of breaking in, and he is beaten to death, no one is guilty of bloodshed.

But if this happens after sunrise, there is guilt of bloodshed. A thief must make full restitution. If he is unable, he is to be sold because of his theft.

If what was stolen—whether ox, donkey, or sheep—is actually found alive in his possession, he must repay double.

If the thief is not caught, the owner of the house must present himself to the judges to determine whether or not he has taken his neighbor’s property.

In any case of wrongdoing involving an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or anything else lost, and someone claims, ‘That’s mine,’ the case between the two parties is to come before the judges. The one the judges condemn must repay double to his neighbor.

“When a man gives his neighbor a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any other animal to care for, but it dies, is injured, or is stolen, while no one is watching,

If it was actually torn apart by a wild animal, he is to bring it as evidence; he does not have to make restitution for the torn carcass.